


What if...

by BluJay27



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Implied lapamedot, MOM SWAP AU, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-20 10:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19990261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluJay27/pseuds/BluJay27
Summary: What if Blue Diamond rebelled against home world?





	1. His Weapon

Steven crossed his arms over the shallow blue pyramid that jutted from his chest and huffed in frustration, “Where’d all the candy planets go? The sign even disappeared.”   
Lars just pointed towards the trashcan, eliciting a light slap on his arm from Sadie. “The last of them expired so we had to throw them away. I told you they were discontinued last time you were here.” Sadie said, silently hoping Steven wasn’t as upset as he seemed. “Didya have to throw away the sign?” The sign that Steven referred to was an advertisement for candy planets and was a 4-foot cutout of an astronaut. “It didn’t fit in the trashcan so it’s just been sitting back here for a while. I guess you could have it if you really care that much.” Lars pulled out a dusty, but undamaged, cardboard sign from the backroom of the Big Donut and motioned for Steven to take it, “If you’re going to take you gotta leave us alone though.”  
“Deal!” Steven snatched it and made his way home towards the temple, where he lived with his three best friends in the whole entire world. He was almost at the temple when he noticed the battle on the beach.   
There was a horde of crabs attacking the gems. “Steven! Get in the temple! Quick, before they notice you!” Amethyst was fighting off the crabs with her whip, poofing three or four of them at a time. Steven ran up the path to the temple, just narrowly avoiding Lapis, who was twirling around with her staff, somehow making the battle look more like a complex dance than a fight. She was contrasted by Peridot who had a dagger in each hand and was stabbing crabs with no discernible pattern or logic.   
Steven slammed the door to the temple seconds before the last of the crabs were poofed, signaling to the gems that they could join him. Amethyst was the first to get there, despite having started the farthest away from the temple. Steven didn’t have to wonder why she was in a rush for long, as she immediately grabbed an almost impossibly large sandwich off the counter. Despite its size, she ate the whole thing in one bite, prompting a look of disgust from Lapis. “They didn’t leave gems behind so there’s probably some sort of queen headed our way, so don’t too comfortable.” Peridot was usually the one who pointed out these kinds of things, despite Lapis being the one who took more of a leadership role.  
“Whatcha got there Steven?” Peridot was pointing at the cardboard sign. Steven had almost forgotten he had it with him. “It’s the candy planet man! He went on a long and dangerous mission to bring back candy planets for everyone!” Steven was practically bouncing with excitement, but was interrupted when a pale blue scythe came hurtling out of his gem, forcing Lapis to duck as it flew above her head and wedged itself into the wall, which allowed her to see what it was, “A scythe; that was Blue’s weapon too.” Blue Quartz was Steven’s mother and the leader of the rebellion that ended millennia before Steven was born. Almost as soon as Lapis said that it disappeared, leaving the splintered cut in the wall the only sign anything had happened.   
Since the gems were just hanging out at the temple, Steven decided to see if he could summon his weapon again, although hopefully less forcefully. Steven tried to figure it out by himself but he didn’t know where to start, so he decided to ask the gems. Amethyst was just sleeping on the couch, so he started with her. “Hey, Amethyst! How do you summon your weapon?” Steven nudged her awake. Amethyst just shrugged, “When I need it just...happens.” she pulled a purple whip out of her chest, “I don’t even really think about it, to be honest.” Steven didn’t find that to be much help, so he decided to try asking a different gem.   
Peridot was on the balcony, making one of the sculptures she was so fond of, so Steven walked over to the small gem, “How do you summon your weapon, Peridot?” She looked at him and thought for a few seconds before responding, “Well I guess I focus on the chaos of battle, but while also seeing the order that happens within the chaos. And then I channel the energy through my gem.” She pulled two daggers out of her forehead. Steven nodded and wandered down to the beach to attempt this. He closed his eyes and tried to remember the scene from earlier. He scrunched his eyes shut even tighter but nothing happened.  
“Did Peri tell you to do that?” Lapis had managed to sneak up on him while his eyes were closed, startling Steven out of his thoughts, “Yeah, she said I had to focus on the chaos of battle, but also the order? And I’m really confused. How do you summon your weapon?”  
“Well, I picture myself as a boat, riding a sea of my thoughts. I disconnect myself from the battle and focus on the peace within me, and then it just-” she reaches behind her to grab the deep blue staff coming out of her gem. Steven tries to take that to heart but before he can try it Lapis looks at him with a startled, but stern look,” I can feel the queen crab coming towards us through the ocean. It’s bigger than I expected. Run to the temple and tell Amethyst and Peridot to get down here.” He knew it was urgent when Lapis didn’t shorten their names like she usually did.   
By the time Steven made it to the temple the two shorter gems were ready to go; they had guessed why Steven was running. “Stay here Steven. We’ll be back soon.” Peridot closed the door behind her and Amethyst. Steven could see why Lapis had been concerned when a giant green and blue crab crawled out of the water. It was at least 10 feet tall and wider than it was tall. Steven was able to spot the glittering gem it between its eyes.   
The gems all jumped at it immediately but struggled to injure it due to the hard shell that covered most of its body. Steven could tell the gems were struggling and he looked around for a way to help. He finally settled on the sign he had brought home from the Big Donut. He grabbed it and ran out to the balcony. He threw the sign with all the strength he could muster. It landed on one of the crab’s eyes! It didn’t hurt it much but it did distract it long enough for Peridot to launch herself at one of the few unarmored areas and sink a dagger into it, poofing the crab. Lapis quickly picked up the gem and bubbled it away.  
“Nice move, Steven!” Amethyst bounded up the stairs next to Steven.  
“I would’ve been more helpful if I could summon my weapon.” Steven frowned at the thought.  
“Eventually you’ll figure out how to summon your weapon in your own way.” Lapis strolled behind Amethyst, “Until then you can help in other ways.”


	2. Adventures in the temple

Steven was sitting on his bed when he heard a knock at the door. When he opened it he was surprised to see his dad, Greg standing in the doorway, “Hey there shtoo-ball! Why d’ya look so surprised? It is Wednesday, isn’t it?”  
“Oh yeah! I guess we just lost track of time,” weekly family dinner had become routine after Steven moved in with the gems, “The gems are on a mission right now but they should be back soon; then we can all make dinner together.”  
Almost as if on command, the warp pad activated, signaling their return. However all they looked beat, and without even looking over at Steven and Greg, Lapis said, “That mission was more difficult than expected, so we’re going to relax in the temple for a bit. Can you make yourself dinner?” She didn’t wait for a reply before walking into the temple right behind Peridot and Amethyst.  
Steven grabbed Greg’s hand and pulled him into the temple before the door closed, but was dismayed to find that the gems had already gone to their rooms, leaving them in a small plain room with a single hallway opposite the now securely closed door, “Steven! What’d you do that for?”  
“The gems only left because they forgot about family dinner. We just need to find them and remind them!” Steven looked at his dad as if that should have been obvious.  
“Well, you coulda given me a heads up at least. You startled me.”  
“Sorry about that; I just knew that I had to hurry since I can’t open the door by myself yet.” Steven looked down at the floor in embarrassment, missing Greg’s panicked look.  
“Well, I guess we’ll just have to follow your plan then, if you can’t open it to let us out.” And with that, they began down the hallway in front of them. It wasn’t long before they heard muttering coming from a side passage. They turned into it and saw the source. Peridot was working on one of her inventions, and the muttering as her trying to figure out how to fix a problem with it. Pieces of metal were strewn across the floor, most clustered around a metal chute that Steven assumed was some sort of trash can. Greg accidentally kicked one of these metal pieces, notifying Peridot of their presence.  
“Steven! How’d you get in here!?” Peridot jumped off of her chair.  
“I followed you guys since you forgot about family dinner!” Steven said, clearly proud of getting into the temple.  
“It’s not safe here.” Steven’s face fell when he realized how unimpressed Peridot was.  
“But family dinner...”  
“I’ll be there soon, but not before you get out of the temple.”  
“C’mon, let me go with you to tell the other gems at least.” Peridot wasn’t actually as responsible as she liked to act and she had a soft spot for him.  
“I’ll stay right next to you! You’ll hardly even know I’m there”  
“Fine. But you have to do exactly what I say.”  
“Yes!” Steven cheered, ignoring Greg’s uneasy look.  
“Are you sure this is a good idea, Shtoo-ball? Gem stuff has always made me kinda uneasy, and if it’s dangerous...” Greg has always been nervous around, well, anything gem related; that was actually why Steven had moved in with the gems when his gem started to glow sometimes, around his eight birthday. Steven still wasn’t fully over that, which is why the gems had instituted weekly family dinner. Steven didn’t mind that though since the gems were a lot of fun to cook with.  
“I could let you out of the temple before Steven and I go find Amethyst” Greg was visibly relieved at Peridot’s suggestion.  
“That’d be great, thanks.” Greg was already moving towards the door.  
“You can just stay here if you want. Just don’t touch anything” Peridot said to Steven.  
“Okay!” Steven hopped onto Peridot’s chair and waved as they walked out into the hallway.  
Steven took the chance to poke around a bit, since Peridot never let him look at her inventions until they were finished, unlike her art projects.  
The one she was working on seemed to be a metal bracer that collapses into a bracelet. Based on the size it was probably for Lapis, which made sense since she gave Amethyst an upgrade for her whip not long ago. Peridot liked to show affection through gifts so the crystal gems always had more armor and weapons than they needed.  
Steven was pulled out of his train of thought when Peridot arrived back, kicking the scrap metal out of her way.  
“C’mon, it’s just through here.” Peridot motioned towards the metal chute that Steven had thought was for trash.  
He heard a clang as Peridot catapulted herself into it. Steven hurried behind her, not wanting to break his promise to stay close. He was quickly accelerating down the boxy metal slide, catching glimpses of Peridot as he turned around corners and curves. He had been sliding for minutes when he finally fell out of it onto a large mattress. Steven looked around and realized he appeared to be in a large cave full of trash. So maybe it was a trash chute as well.  
“P! You wanna-” Amethyst cut herself off once her head popped up behind a trash heap and she caught sight of Steven.  
“Hello, Amethyst. We're here because we forgot about family dinner. Greg is in the house now.” Steven always thought it was funny that Peridot didn't shorten names like Amethyst and Lapis did.  
“Oh yeah! I completely forgot. Wait, why's Steven here?”  
“He wanted to come with me while I found you and Lapis. I didn't see any reason to stop him.”  
“Cool. I'll go check on Greg then.” Greg had always liked Amethyst better than the other gems, not counting Blue Quartz of course, “I'm sure you remember how to get to Lapis's room. We've been there enough.” Amethyst winked and disappeared into her maze of a room before Peridot could reply.  
Peridot took a second to process that before motioning for Steven to follow her, “It's over here.”  
She led him through Amethyst's room without hesitation until they walked around a final pile, revealing a door. They walked through it and it was like a portal. After spending so long in Amethyst's room this one seemed bare, at least until he looked up and saw the collection of bubbles in two shades of blue, plus green and purple.  
“Why do all of the bubble go to Lapis's room?”  
“This isn't her room. It's more like a living room for the temple.” That explained the three doors, one each door. They had just come through the purple door and were headed towards a deep blue door. They walked past a bright green door.  
They walked through the blue door and Steven was sure that they were in Lapis's room. It was a giant forest, like the ones that she liked to fly in sometimes. She had brought Steven with her a couple of times and it was magical. There was a stream nearby and a particularly large tree with giant roots. Lapis could just barely visible curled up between them.  
“Hey, Lapis!” Steven ran around the tree, startling Lapis.  
“Steven! What are you doing here?” Lapis looked up from the book she was reading.  
“You forgot about family dinner!” Steven was a bit frustrated with her since family dinner had been her idea to start with, but he knew that was a bit unfair since, in the four years since it had become routine, this was the first time Lapis had forgotten.  
“We should probably head up quickly before Amethyst and Greg have any ideas.” Peridot had a point there, a couple of years ago Amethyst used gem tech in a cosplay they did of some show and accidentally shrank Greg down to six inches tall. It took three days for Peridot to figure out how to reverse it, which only contributed to Greg's fear surrounding gem stuff, especially gem tech.  
That memory was enough for the three of them to hurry back to the house. The three of them were glad to find that they were just chatting on the couch.  
“Steven! We were just talking about what we should make for dinner.” Amethyst would eat anything, so she didn't care what they made, as long as there was a lot of it.  
“Yeah! I was hoping to try a new recipe.” Greg always had a particular recipe in mind. Steven was shocked he hadn't run out of ideas yet.  
The five of them were quickly in the kitchen working on Greg's recipe and Steven couldn't have been happier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm probably going to skip some episodes so that we can get to some overarching plot before too long. Hopefully Connie will show up in the next episode

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to ask any questions about this universe- I'll answer anything that isn't major spoilers.


End file.
